A NEW NIGERIA I SEE; THE REAL INDEPENDENCE

Nigeria is my country and I love her, am so grateful for all she has and all she will be. Happy Independence Everyone, there is only a nation called Nigeria because you and i exist, we are the Nigeria of today. I believe in a developed Nigeria, a Nigeria that is the envy of other nations, for a man at the age of 55, there is a lot of expectations. I believe that every citizen of this great nation deserves;

A Nigeria where police men have enough that they don't need to collect money.

A Nigeria with exceptional Health and Educational institutions.

Thoughts you and I have had and will keep having everyday of our lives. Purposeful!!! PART 2.......Passion.

Several people have tried several things in the name of finding satisfaction and fulfillment. Many have been able to only find Passion. I feel there are two paths we can take to discover our purpose. The first is passion. What are you passionate about? What do you really care about? What would you live for? What would you die for? We ask several other questions just to find our real passion and this includes;

1. What makes you smile? (Activities, people, events, hobbies, projects, etc.) 
2. What are your favorite things to do in the past? What about now? 
3. What activities make you lose track of time?
4. What makes you feel great about yourself? 
5. What are your deepest values? 
6. What are you naturally good at? (Skills, abilities, gifts etc.) What do people say you are good at?
   
7. What do people typically ask you for help in?
8. If you had to teach something, what would you teach? 
9. What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life? 
10. Who inspires you most? (Anyone you know or do not know. Family, friends, authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you, in each person? 
11. Given your talents, passions and values. How could you use these resources to serve, to help, to contribute? (to people, beings, causes, organization, environment, planet, etc.) 
12. What were some challenges, difficulties and hardships you’ve overcome or are in the process of overcoming? How did you do it? 
13. What causes do you strongly believe in? Connect with? 
14. If you could get a message across to a large group of people. Who would those people be? What would your message be? 
15. You are now 90 years old, sitting on a rocking chair outside your porch; you can feel the spring breeze gently brushing against your face. You are blissful and happy, and are pleased with the wonderful life you’ve been blessed with. Looking back at your life and all that you’ve achieved and acquired, all the relationships you’ve developed; what matters to you most? List them out.

         Answering these questions helps you know more about yourself but Passion is not 100 percent foolproof, but it will get you into what I call the location, the area, the neighborhood of what your purpose really is.

This is not the ultimate way since it is not 100 percent acurate and this comes from the fact that it is only from your efforts. There still abound a level of ignorance you will definately need to surmount.

  On the next part we will see the second and most profound way to discover Purpose and even a better way to know more about your passions.

Thoughts you and I have had and will keep having everyday of our lives. Purposeful!!!

On a cool afternoon some years ago at the office where observed my six month 400 level internship as an undergraduate, a friend and classmate we worked together said, "I don't think am going to end up in the ICT field". This was a bit surprising to hear a 400 level Computer Science Student say such. It didn’t take too long to figure out what prompted such a statement from my friend.
 I soon deducted from our conversation that certain thoughts had refused to leave my friend’s mind. He had been battling with these thoughts. And these disturbing thoughts were for the future. 
Thoughts you and I have had and will keep having everyday of our lives. Instantly I knew it was all about one question, the question of Purpose. There was an dis-settlement in his mind and this was caused by; 

1. The unclear path to fulfill his aspiration.

2. The fact that he didn’t even know what exactly the best path to follow to a fulfilling future was.

3. Fear of failing his desire to be wealthy and help people.

 I know you know about this feeling too; it is common to everyone with a common sense. My friend wanted to be one of the best in his field, influential and impactful. He never wanted a life of need, helplessness or poverty, but I know one thing for sure, the way to his desire is finding his purpose. 
 Now, the question is “Have you found your purpose?”.

What are you filling that vacuum in your heart with?

I think there are two paths we can take to discover our purpose.

 Follow me on the next part...

GREATER LIFE: Perfectionism - The Dangerous Trap!

GREATER LIFE: Perfectionism - The Dangerous Trap!:                                                                          Perfectionism - The Dangerous Trap! Just when I have some...

LIFE STREAM WORSHIP

                       LIFE STREAM WORSHIP

You can't afford to miss some opportunities in life, Life Stream Worship is one. An unadulterated atmosphere of worship.

Creating Opportunity From Oddness

Interesting works: Creating Opportunity From Oddness: An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person...

Creating Opportunity From Oddness

An enterprising person is one who comes across a pile of scrap metal and sees the making of a wonderful sculpture. An enterprising person is one who drives through an old decrepit part of town and sees a new housing development. An enterprising person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life.

To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined enough to seize opportunities that present themselves...regardless of the economy.
A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful. Do all you can in preparation of what's to come.

Enterprising people always see the future in the present. Enterprising people always find a way to take advantage of a situation, not be burdened by it.

And enterprising people aren't lazy. They don't wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after the opportunities. Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working toward your ambition.

Enterprise is two things. The first is creativity. You need creativity to see what's out there and to shape it to your advantage. You need creativity to look at the world a little differently. You need creativity to take a different approach, to be different.


What goes hand-in-hand with the creativity of enterprise is the second requirement: the courage to be creative.

You need courage to see things differently, courage to go against the crowd, courage to take a different approach, courage to stand alone if you have to, courage to choose activity over inactivity.

And lastly, being enterprising doesn't just relate to the ability to make a living. Being enterprising also means feeling good enough about yourself, having enough self worth to want to seek advantages and opportunities that will make a difference in your future. And by doing so you will increase your confidence, your courage, your creativity and your self-worth - your enterprising nature.

FLOROCKA & SOTO at the Awakening OAU (pt 2)

Perfectionism - The Dangerous Trap!

                                    

                                    Perfectionism - The Dangerous Trap!
Just when I have something figured out, along comes another how-to-article telling me how to be or do something better or even change my entire life. No matter where I turn, I am constantly reminded that I am not good enough in more ways than one. I am not smart enough, not rich enough, not slim enough, not efficient enough, not pretty enough, not powerful enough, not “with it” enough and probably “out of it” altogether.

That’s me and it gets worse. In line with our education economy, yesterday’s perfect diet is banned today and my car of the year was just recalled. My time-management is out of date and my writing achievements fade against the big authors. Yes, I am my own worst critic. Growing up with perfectionist parents didn't help either. It wasn’t until their seventies, that my father could tolerate fingerprints on his freshly washed car and that my mother learned to enjoy a meal without matching table decor.

Perfectionism is driving us up the wall or around the bend and neither direction is desirable. No wonder half of the population is on Prozac and the other half copes on some other crutch. We live under constant pressure to be perfect and expect nothing less from others. Intensely glued to information that helps us conform to some perfect ideal, we learn less about ourselves. Detached from the core of who we are, we show up with fabricated selves to gain approval.

There is quite a difference between aiming for a successful life or relationship and trying to achieve perfection. Contrary to popular belief, perfection is not required to succeed in love and life. In fact, the perfectionism-trap has serious negative consequences:

We feel our accomplishments are never good enough

We don’t achieve personal satisfaction

We value people based on their achievements

We believe doing our best doesn’t cut it

We take mistakes personally and hesitate to try again

We are afraid to show our flaws

We are vulnerable to rejection

We do what we should, not what we want

We set impossible to reach goals

We are hard on others and ourselves

We expect perfection of others

We develop a obsession with perfectionism

We feel we never measure up

We fear failure in relationships and have difficulties being intimate

We don’t pursue a relationship out of fear it might not be perfect

We become critical of our partners

To sum it up, we believe that unless we are perfect success and love will evade us. The biggest cost of perfectionism is our neglect of the humble core within and our failure to claim a life in alignment with our true self. Instead of focusing on our qualities and all that is right with us, we are busy fixing everything seemingly imperfect. Driven to live up to the perfect ideal we become pretentious, self-promoting, critical human beings. Because of our focus on achieving goals, we never enjoy the journey of getting there. As a result we lose the irreplaceable moments of relating to people and doing things.

Webster defines perfectionism as "a disposition, which regards anything short of perfect as unacceptable". The torment for perfectionists is that they never find anything perfect, simply because perfection does not exist. Instead they suffer from social and personal anxiety and strained relationships. To find peace, accept ourselves and nurture the best in us, we have to overcome perfectionism and:

·Use our mistakes as opportunities for growth

·Set goals in line with who we are and what we want

·Accept ourselves as human beings with flaws

·Give a little less than 100% and still experience success

·Enjoy the journey instead of just focusing on the goal

·Recognize that anxiety arises when we set unrealistic goals

·Understand that we get more done and feel better about ourselves if we don’t strive for perfection.

·Give up the irrational belief that relationships must be perfect ·Stop second guessing ourselves

·Be compassionate with ourselves and our partners

Thousands of people give less than 100% to a goal, but 100% to the journey and succeed. Everyday people don’t give all they've got, but still get done what they need to. If we try to give 100 % to everything we do, we never get enough done. Perfectionists operate on the assumption that unless they can give 100 % to a task, they won’t even start. As a result, they become occupied with trivial details and put off tasks until they can make a 100% effort. Perfectionists tend to be procrastinators with endless to-do lists and dreams put on hold until “some day.”

When it comes to relationships, perfectionists don’t do that well either. Single perfectionists keep on dating without making a choice, thinking someone more perfect will be around the corner. When they are in a relationship, the fear that it might not be perfect, keeps their relationships from progressing. Even when they finally settle with a partner, second-guessing their choice and being critical of their partner ensures frustrating relationships. Compromise in love as well as in life is difficult for them. Perfectionists pay a high price for the misguided belief that choosing the right love partner will guarantee a perfect relationship.

The entire perfectionist-trap becomes a vicious cycle in life and love. The more we attempt to be perfect in every area, the more anxious we get. This anxiety is coupled with a feeling of always falling short or behind. Consequently we concentrate on what is wrong with us or what we didn’t do. While doing our very best is admirable, more often than not, doing a good job is enough. The truth is that we are always half-cooked human beings in transition. Nobody will love us any more just because we are more perfect. We are being loved for the passion and spirit we bring to the table as genuine human beings.

This is not to say we should not strive for the best but that we strive in the reality of faith.

How to Turn Nothing Into Something

                                    How to Turn Nothing Into Something

                                 Have you ever wondered how to turn nothing into something?

First, in order to turn nothing into something, you've got to start with some ideas and imagination.
Now, it might be hard to call ideas and imagination nothing; but how tangible are those ideas? That is a bit of a mystery. I don't believe that ideas that can be turned into a hotel, ideas that can be turned into an enterprise, ideas that can be turned into a new vaccine or ideas that can be turned into some miracle product, should be called nothing. But tangibly, you have nothing.

Interesting! Think of it, ideas that become so powerful in your mind and in your consciousness that they seem real to you even before they become tangible. Imagination that is so strong, you can actually see it.
When I built my first home for my family in Idaho all those years ago, before I started construction, I would take my friends and associates out to the vacant property and give them a tour of the house. Is that possible? Is it possible to take someone on a tour through an imaginary house? And the answer is, "Yes, of course." "Here is the 3 car garage," I used to say, and my friends would look and say, "Yes, this garage will hold 3 cars." I could really make it "live". I would take them on a tour throughout the house… "Here is the fireplace, and look, this side is brick and the other side is stone." I could make it so real… "Follow me through the rest of the house. Take a look through the picture window here in the kitchen, isn't the view great?" One day, I made the house so real that one of my friends bumped his elbow on the fireplace. I mean, it was that real.
So, the first step of turning nothing into something is to imagine the possibilities. Imagine All of the possibilities. One of the reasons for seminars, sermons, lyrics from songs and testimonials of others is to give us an idea of the possibilities; to help us imagine and to see the potential.
Now here is the second step for turning nothing into something, you must Believe that what you imagine Is possible for you. Testimonials like, "If I can do it, you can do it." often become a support to our belief. And we start believing. First we imagine it's possible. Second, we start to believe that what's possible is possible for us.

We might also believe because of our own testimonial. Here is what your testimonial might say, "If I did it once, I can do it again. If it happened for me before, it could very well happen again." So we believe not only the testimonials of others who say, "If I can do it, you can do it. If I can change, you can change. If I can start with nothing, you can start with nothing. If I can turn it all around, you can turn it all around." Then we also have the support of our own testimonial, if we've accomplished something before. "If we did it once, we can do it again. If we did it last year, we can do it this year." So those two things together are very powerful. Now, we do not have actual substance yet, although it is very close.

Again, step one is to imagine the possibilities. Step two is to imagine that what is possible is possible for you. Here is what we call step two - faith to believe.

In fact, one writer said this, "Faith is substance." An interesting word, "substance", the powerful ability to believe in the possibilities that are possible for you. If you have faith to believe… that faith is substance, substance meaning "a piece of the real." Now it's not "the real", it's not this podium, but it is so powerful that it is very close to being real and so the writer said, "The faith is a piece of, the substance of". He then goes on to call it evidence, substance and evidence. It is difficult to call substance and evidence "nothing". It is nothing in the sense that it cannot be seen except with the inner eye. You can't get a hold of it because it isn't Yet tangible. But it is possible to turn nothing, especially ideas and imaginations, into something if you believe that it is now possible for you. That substance and evidence becomes so powerful that it can now be turned into reality.

So the first step is to imagine what is possible, the second is to have the faith to believe that what is possible is possible for you. And now the third step is to that you go to work to make it real. You go to work to make it a hotel. You go to work to make it an enterprise. You go to work and make it good health. You go to work and make it an association. You go to work and make it a good marriage. You go to work and make it a movement; you make it tangible. You make it viable. You breathe life into it and then you construct it. That is such a unique and powerful ability for all of us human beings. Put this to work and start the miracle process today!

Excerpted from the Jim Rohn Weekend Seminar-Excelling in the New Millennium)